Enid sat up straight in her seat, she focused on breathing and looking alive. The courtroom had no windows, so she was at her full strength. She had a blue dress on, and her hair was in a ponytail. She had been made up to look younger than she was. She may have assisted with a bit of subtle appearance manipulation to make herself look smaller than she would have appeared otherwise, she’d reduced her chest size as well. Why have vampiric powers if you never used them? She’d also used the shapeshifting ability to make her voice sound younger. She looked at the judge. She was an older looking woman, her hair was greying. She was looking over the paperwork for the case.

“This is a preliminary hearing to determine whether I think there is enough evidence to go forward with a formal trial with jury, or judge trial. As the accused attorney has motioned, I order the charges dropped.”

“So, the crown’s accusation is this small, teenage girl attempted to murder six fully armored police special operations team members, five of which were males in excess of two hundred pounds barehanded? And the death of a police officer four houses down during the time the assault was taking place?”

“Yes, that is what the crown asserts. There were guns on the scene.”

“Ones which the police had with them. What is the game here? Do you think she’s protecting someone?”

“No, Madam Justice. We have video evidence, DNA evidence that it was her.”

“What are the circumstances of the attempted murder?”

“The police were breeching the house as part of an investigation into a report child exploitation ring, it was part of a coordinated raid, North America Wide.”

The judge shifted through the paperwork in front of her.

“I do not see an arrest or search warrant for anyone at the accused’s address.”

“The officer’s entered the wrong house. Madam Justice.”

The judge pulled off her reading glasses again and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She put them back on and read through another piece of paper, Enid could tell she was gathering herself before speaking again. She’d seen humans do it a million times before. The judge was pissed, when she spoke again her voice was calm.

“And the crown would like to bring charges against the accused for defending their home from an unlawful police raid?”

“At the time of the raid the members believed they had the right address, and their statements clearly indicate that they announced themselves as being members of the police force.”

“And the murder charge?”

“The accused’s attempted murder of these officers prevented them from responding to a backup request at the actual location which resulted in a shootout where an officer died. This makes her an accomplice to that murder.”

The judge blinked a few times shook her head and continued.

“Tell me did you bother to read the transcript of the recorded call that was ongoing when they broke in before you charged the accused with this crime?”

“No, this is a clear case of attempted murder, she admits to attacking the officers, who have said they announced themselves, she doesn’t deny they did, it is a he said, she said situation that the Jury can decide on.”

“If you had you would see that at no point during the breech did the officers declare themselves.”

“They were assaulted immediately on entry.”

The judge looked at Enid, sizing her up and down, then to her lawyer.

“Please tell me why I should dismiss these charges?”

“Madam Justice, the accused has admitted to defending her home from unknown attackers. She had no idea these were police officers, it was dark, there was smoke. She could not tell if they were police or not and they did not announce themselves before breeching the door. That is a clear violation of police procedure. On top of that they had no right to enter the home. Whether they thought they were in the right or not is not the question, the fact is, this was a home invasion by six armed individuals to which the accused responded with the minimum amount of force necessary to prevent bodily harm to herself. These home invaders were heavily armed, and armored. This required the force necessary to stop them to be increased unfortunately this caused them to suffer broken bones. The accused only defended herself. She had no weapons to speak of she was in her school clothes and wasn’t even wearing shoes. The police had guns drawn and were intent on putting down a child molester when in fact they ended up shooting a child. ASIRT has already pressed three charges against a police member for this action, and two are on paid suspension, one for shooting his colleague in the chest five times, and the other for shooting two of the other members in the back. Nothing about this is right. The accused and her family were victimized and the Crown is just compounding that by bringing far more severe charges then this would warrant, if this had been a lawful entry, the maximum the accused could be charged with reasonably would be simple assault and resisting arrest. They are trying to make the accused a scape goat for their failed raid. An officer in the actual raid lost their life as referenced by the murder charge which is further proof of their intention to blame the accused for their mistake to save face.”

The judge sighed. Looked Enid up and down. Then back to the crown attorney.

“I will let this trial proceed. How does the accused plead?”

“The accused pleads not guilty, Madam Justice.”

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Jessica looked very displeased and sat down patting Enid on the shoulder. Enid for her part was slightly amused the Judge looked like she was about to gobble up the crown attorney.

“Very well a trial date will be set, as the crimes are quite serious, we will be proceeding with adult charges, the details of the crimes and the accused will be released to the public, and we will open the court room to the press. The accused will be remanded into custody as if these charges are valid, she is a very dangerous individual. Unless there are any objections?”

Jessica looked like she was about to faint. Enid remained calm, it would burn her identity, but she’d die shortly after being put in prison and change her face, no big deal. The crown attorney looked even more nervous than Jessica after the judge’s statement. He looked pale and was tugging on the collar of his robe.

“Madam Justice we are happy with her being charged as a youth given the circumstances.”

“Oh no, you’ve had accused her of very serious charges, Alberta law is clear, she needs to be charged as an adult, a Police officer is dead, and she’s accused as a co-conspirator that in itself is enough.”

“Madam Justice, we still recommend she be charged as a young offender.”

“Crown, she is going to be charged as an adult, unless you think you don’t have enough evidence to convict her at the queen’s bench?”

“Well, it’s not that, the crown just wanted to show some leniency towards the accused.”

“Leniency for a cop killer?”

“Madam Justice, I was not looking at it like that?”

“What were you looking at it like? That you’d dump a bunch of very scary charges on her, offer to reduce them, so she’d plead guilty and go away quietly? Then you could refer to E.A. in the papers as the scape goat. That the case cannot be discussed because it involved a youthful offender. I think you underestimated the accused and her families bank account. The crown’s actions here are offensive to this court. Drop the charges and destroy the file on the accused and wipe any DNA and fingerprint data you collected from the databases. You overreached and this is me slapping your hand. Don’t do it again.”

“But Madam Justice, she assaulted six officers.”

“Then maybe they shouldn’t have entered the home of a martial arts expert who had recently been kidnapped by armed men without a warrant, or probable cause. And you should have tried charging her with assault instead of whatever this is. She tossed the file on to the bench”

“But…”

“Don’t but me again, you have two choices drop the charges and expunge her records, or show up on 15th to start picking a jury, waste a bunch of everyone’s time then have me dismiss this case very publicly and with a lot more severe language. I’m sure your ministry would prefer the former. But feel free to appeal my decision I’m sure the court of appeal will love this one even more than I did.”

The prosecutor’s cheeks were a bright red by now. He started gathering up his papers. Then addressed the judge.

“Yes, Madam justice we will drop the charges and expunge the records.”

The judge looked at Enid and addressed her directly.

“Ms. Aurelius, I apologize on the courts and the crowns behalf, you were victimized two times, once by the police and once by the justice system. I see that as part of preparation for trial your lawyer had you go in for psychiatric evaluation to ascertain your state of mind. This was provided as part of this motion. In it I see that you were shot twice in the last three months, once during the kidnapping attempt and a second time by the police. While you profess to be alright the doctor has said that you have been traumatized and could not have been expected to respond in any other fashion then fight or flight to an invasion of your home by armed men. She also recommended you seek treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder. Ms. Aurelius your skills make you just as dangerous as a loaded handgun I am forced to order you to undertake that treatment. If you fail to attend counselling sessions with a licensed psychologist at least three times a week for a period of no less than one year, if you fail to do so I will request to have you committed to a place where you will get the help you need for your safety and the safety of others.”

“Madam justice, the charges were dropped, you said she didn’t do anything wrong.”

“No, I stated she acted reasonably given her circumstances. She still managed to seriously injure six armed police officers by herself. You yourself submitted an affidavit from three expert witness attesting to her martial arts skills, that it would have been easier for her to use lethal force on officers then to disable them. That proves to me that she is dangerous in her current state of mind. What happens if someone grabs her shoulder on the street?”

“Madam Justice, the very fact that she disabled rather than using lethal force proves that she was fully in mental control of her actions.”

“An average sixteen-year-old girl would run and hide if she saw armed people entering her house, not wait by the door to attack them.”

“Madam Justice with all due respect if my client were an average fifteen-year-old girl she would be dead right now because the kidnappers would have succeeded in taking her and her friend god knows where.”

“Take the win, my ruling stands. The accused is free to go.”

“Yes, Madam Justice.”

Enid stood up. Looking the Judge in the eyes.

“Ma’am, may I speak?”

“Enid, I don’t think this is a good idea.”

“You may but address me as Madam Justice.”

Enid spoke while maintaining eye contact with the judge, forcing her blood to bend the woman to her will.

“Madam Justice, Yes I have the skills to seriously harm people around me I have only ever used them twice in my life. I admit that these recent violent events have not been pleasant. I thought my life was in danger and that running and hiding would do me no good. A smart crew would come in all entrances and have people posted outside to prevent me from escaping. They would then guard the entrances and search the house until the found me. There would be no escape. By attacking the rear entrance, I would be in melee with them, and they would risk hitting each other with any gunfire and I could use the rear door to escape the house. I acted both reasonably and responsibly with my knowledge of breaching techniques and urban warfare. The fact that the invaders did not cover the other exits is something I could not reasonably have known. Had I known that I would have fled from the front door and avoided this situation all together. No sane person wants to be shot Madam Justice, it hurts, a lot. Also, the most serious injuries to the officers resulted from their colleague’s poor firearm control and situational awareness. I think you can agree I did the only logical thing in this situation with the knowledge I possess and forcing me to go to counselling would be an unnecessary burden on someone who for all intents and purposes is innocent.”

The judge nodded along with Enid’s explanation. Both lawyers were looking at Enid in disbelief.

“I do agree that you did the only logical thing possible. Well spoken, Ms. Aurelius I don’t see the angry bitter young woman the interviewer described in my court room today. I see no further need to send you to mandatory counselling.”

“Thank you, madam justice.”

Once they were allowed to leave Jessica looked down at Enid.

“Why did your mother bother hiring me? The most hard-nosed judge in the province was hanging on your every word. You have a future in law and politics kid.”

She laughed.

Been there, done that, no thanks.

“Maybe I should decide to be a lawyer when I grow up, but I did have my hopes set on life as an international spy and assassin. Oh well.”

“You are a strange kid, good luck.”

Jessica offered her hand, Enid shook it.

“You’re a good lawyer. Thanks for getting the charges dropped.”

“Gladly, I’m not a fan of US style policing here in Canada.”

Enid nodded and waved and headed outside, into the cold air and sun. She pulled her coat close.

Being mortal half the time sucks.